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The Meeker Incident: Allotment & Dispossession of Ute Land
A federal agent in Colorado tried to force a band of Utes to take up farming. This would come to impact not just Utes in Utah, but national Indian policy.The experience of the Ute people was a crucial factor in the development of national policies…
The Christmas Bird Count
Throughout the holiday season, Utahns celebrate by trimming trees, drinking hot chocolate, skiing, and... bird watching? Yep, they do! Learn more about this longstanding Christmas tradition.In Utah, winter means preparing for the holiday season. But,…
Mink from Summit County to Hollywood
American mink are cousins to otters and ferrets, and their fur is exceptionally soft and dense. While times have changed, mink furs raised on rural Utah farms were once the height of luxury fashion.
Utah’s mink industry began in earnest in 1924,…
Dinah the Dino
She’s big, pink, and has long beautiful eyelashes. Learn more about this unique rural Utah icon.
Looming large on the side of Highway 40 in eastern Utah, a sign reading "Vernal: Utah's Dinosaur Land" greets visitors as they enter town. It’s a…
Segregation, Racial Violence, and the Klan in Rural Utah
African Americans living and traveling through Utah in the early twentieth century had to delicately navigate the increasing power of the Ku Klux Klan, which contributed to an acceptance of racially-motivated violence.
Black people have lived and…
Orchards to Steel: The Transformation of Utah Valley
Today, Utah Valley is known for its rapid development and urban growth. But the valley just east of Utah Lake used to be farmland and orchards. Find out how wartime transformation brought prosperity to this region -- but also irrevocable…
Beauty in a Haystack
Artists have long idealized labor and land in the American West. But what motivates an artist to paint a haystack? The answer may surprise you.
Utah boasts a long history of talented artists. In fact, some of our state’s first settlers studied…
Welcome to Main Street: Helper Commercial District
Every rural Utah town has their own special Main Street. In Carbon County, Helper’s main street tells a rich historic story about change and continuity in its unique community.
In the early twentieth century, the small community of Helper was…
Putting the Carbon in Carbon County: Divergent Identities Lead to Divorce
The creation of Carbon County in 1894 resulted from a rift between Mormon agriculturalists and non-Mormon miners, and illustrates the struggle over identity in rural Utah.
The discovery of industrial-grade coal in 1882 at Castle Gate in Price Canyon…
“The Most Noble Subject:” Utah’s Landscape Inspires Artists
Nineteenth-century painters used Utah’s impressive landscape to promote an awe-inspiring vision of the American West through their art.
For many people, thinking of the American West might conjure images of grandiose mountains, golden-orange…
Carbon College and Utah’s Educational Revolt
Back in the 1950s, Utah’s budget-slashing governor J. Bracken Lee wanted to close the first institution of higher education in eastern Utah – which he actually helped establish! But Utahns balked at his plan and stopped it.
Upon its approval in…
Community Cookbooks
Before food blogs and Pinterest, Utah women shared their best recipes in community cookbooks. More than just recipes, these books kept rural foodways and food culture alive.
Today, home cooks can simply search the internet to find thousands of…
Swaner: The Nature Preserve at the Center of Change
This week learn about one family who made it their mission to preserve nature in the heart of a growing city – and they succeeded!
In Summit County, a precious 1200-acre area of wetland is permanently preserved through conservation easements as a…
Orderville & the Great Pants Rebellion
The rural Utah town of Orderville was once a communal utopia – until a single pair of pants scandalized the whole settlement.
Inspired by the utopian visions of LDS prophet Joseph Smith, Utah settlements in the 1850s reorganized into an economic…
Boom & Bust: Topaz Concentration Camp
During World War II, a city of more than 8,000 people rose out of Utah's desert for three years, and then returned to dust.
After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, US President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the relocation and imprisonment of more than…
Ghost Towns: An In-Person History Fix
Did you know that Utah is haunted? Our state has an estimated one hundred ghost towns. While reasons for their abandonment vary, ghost towns throughout rural Utah have one thing in common: our desire to idealize a lost past and try to connect to it…
Roadside Motels
Motels dotted Utah’s highways throughout the twentieth century, beckoning motorists to pull off the road and spend their tourist dollars in rural towns. Now that hotel chains dominate accommodation options, what happened to these locally owned…
The Jeffersonian Ideal: A Misfit for Utah
When the United States was was created in the late 1700s, Thomas Jefferson had a vision of a nation built by individual family farmers. Here in Utah – we love farmers. But did we really live up to Jefferson’s ideal?
For many in the United States'…
Sacred Healing: Traveling Midwives in Early Rural Utah
Frontier life in late-nineteenth century Utah was rough. Today, many rural Utahns still struggle with access to medical care, but once upon a time midwives traveled throughout rural Utah, providing healthcare services to those in isolated areas.
In…
National Monuments to National Parks
Utah is home to five national parks that protect stunning red-rock landscapes. All but one of them began as a national monument. What's the difference, you may ask? Learn all about it.
Zion National Park is a world-famous destination, and its annual…